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I will also note that the initial cornering and pushing escalation driving you to post your results online did not help in calming it down.

I've seen this referred to a few times now, so I guess it's time for me to address that particular aspect of this situation.

Jesse wasn't pushed, nor was he cornered. As has been mentioned, he first appeared in these forums in July, 2006, when he was taking PEP for a protected encounter.

His third post on this website was the now infamous post with thirty two photos. (His response (two days later) to my asking him to remove the bulk of them was to remove a mere three.)

His fourth post in these forums was in the Long Term Survivor forum - a post I removed. I then sent him a PRIVATE MESSAGE to say that as a hiv negative person, he should not be posting in that forum.

What did I base my response on? His thread in the Am I Infected forum, along with a reading of his then-current (August 2007) My Space blog entry. He certainly didn't read like someone who was hiv positive, either in his blog or in the post he made in the LTS forum.

I approached him PRIVATELY, to spare his blushes. HE chose to post my PRIVATE MESSAGE in the narcissism thread, when a private message back to me explaining his situation would have been more appropriate. He chose instead to turn it into a very public drama.

He also took great pains to let me know that he was on the September cover of POZ and that he had reported me to Regan and Sally, with the implication that I was in some sort of trouble. (This was done via PM, quite a while AFTER he publicly posted my original PM to him.) I was only doing my job, and I stand by how I went about it, seeing as how I contacted him PRIVATELY.

Ann

edited to clarify a point - and again because I forgot to use the spell check

"...health will finally be seen not as a blessing to be wished for, but as a human right to be fought for." Kofi Annan

Nymphomaniac: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man. Mignon McLaughlin

HIV is certainly character-building. It's made me see all of the shallow things we cling to, like ego and vanity. Of course, I'd rather have a few more T-cells and a little less character. Randy Shilts

I wonder if all this to-do would have occurred if Jesse wasn't a member of these forums, or if he was a non-posting member. I'm also curious if many people that POZ® features on it's covers are members.

Ann, I don't think you did anything out of line at all. In fact, you would have been remiss if you hadn't called him on the LTS post. As to the 30+ pictures posted, I think we can all agree that that was a bit excessive.

First, I want to thank you, Regan, for your response and for engaging the many of us who have been so concerned about this issue. I truly respect and appreciate your willingness to wade into this debate, and to do so here in the often hostile environ of the boards.

I will simply stand by some of the other comments already made here that the article lacked the proper context to achieve some of the points you refer to. It left far too many people with a perception of HIV/AIDS that is almost more uneducated than should be dignified by POZ. I can sense that as you read the many replies to your post here that you're beginning to see this, and I do appreciate you taking the time to consider the ramifications of that truth.

Secondly, you have pointed out that Jesse sought out POZ for this profile, and this is where I think more conclusively that it was POZ, not he, that was taken advantage of. And this it what leaves me the most sad and embarrassed about this entire situation. As editors and writers, you must do your best to maintain distance and objectivity with your sources, be that for a profile or larger editorial analysis. This is where POZ failed, and it was at the hands of a crafty, self-absorbed teenager whose end-goal was so self-serving that you didn't even see it coming.

By virtue of the fact that Jesse has so brazenly waded into this thread, and arrogantly signaled his real end-goal of making a name for himself as a positive reporter on the Red Carpet, should make you cringe. It's disgusting, and any publication that takes that bait belongs down there with those that cover Paris Hilton. That is not POZ, and I hope never will be again.

Thank you again for your efforts, Regan, and for taking action to hear us and take corrective action.

I wonder if all this to-do would have occurred if Jesse wasn't a member of these forums, or if he was a non-posting member.

I just read the entire thread and was getting ready to ask the same question. He came in with a flourish riled some people up and then appeared on the cover, which has gotten way more attention in these forums than I have seen since I joined almost a year ago. Looks almost like a little PR machine at work.

Regardless it has caused much discussion on the magazine and that is where things need to go now. Forget about Jessie and the current issue what's done is done, now how can POZ be better for each of us.

Let's not forget what it is like when first learning what it is like to be poz we have a thirst for info. When first diagnosed I read it every month and searched out back issues. I not only read POZ but any other magazine that had info that could help me deal with being HIV+. I was starving for info and was happy with any I could find. I enjoyed POZ and learned a great deal at first. I was able to see people were surviving and living great, almost glamorous lives. But then I lost interest as it seemed a magazine full of ads and profiles and articles that I couldn't relate to. Somewhere along the line I found the forums probably through POZ which led me to the POZ website and then here. To be honest I had not seen an issue in months until the infamous Jesse issue. I picked up the hard copy and realized it was still basically the same and went on.

I hope that that through this discussion the magazine will become more relevant and more widely read.

Woods

Logged

"Let us give pubicity to HV/AIDS and not hide it..." "One of the things destroying people with AIDS is the stigma we attach to it." Nelson Mandela

Asaint: I hope I'm not adding to the confusion and someone jump in if I'm off the mark but the below mentions Jesse's female friends talking about HIV

a chum since middle school who is one of a coterie of beautiful straight girls Sanchez calls friends, says, “I told Jesus on numerous occasions, ‘Something could happen to you, because you’re being totally promiscuous.’”

And the following mentions he didn't have any male friends with HIV

Before his diagnosis, Sanchez didn’t know guys like himself who had HIV—or even talked about it. “I realize that [I might not have gotten HIV] if maybe someone who was my age had told me, ‘Hey, this can happen to you, don’t be stupid. Don’t be so naïve!’”

I wonder if all this to-do would have occurred if Jesse wasn't a member of these forums, or if he was a non-posting member.

I've thought about this a bit and I say ''yes'' and ''no''.

Yes....because I think a thread along the lines of "What do you think of POZ Magazine?" would have likely emerged once a few of the regular posters on here got a look at the article. There is enough of a thread history on here to demonstrate that articles like this routinely come under scrutiny, and this would have been especially true of an article coming from POZ- with there being such a close relationship between that magazine and this site. The article was poorly crafted and seemed to promote a dangerous perspective on HIV/AIDS and as such it demanded criticism.

No....because I don't think these threads would have reached these particular heights of fury if the subject was not a member of these forums. Or at least one with a greater sense of decorum. Yes, Jesse received a lashing on here- but he totally brought it on himself (in my opinion) with his deliberately antagonizing and confrontational nature....witness the examples listed in Ann's post above. Heck- witness the carefully chosen quotes he's using currently. That's no accident. And the firsthand knowledge of this type of behavior is what added fuel to the fire.

I've seen this referred to a few times now, so I guess it's time for me to address that particular aspect of this situation.

Jesse wasn't pushed, nor was he cornered. As has been mentioned, he first appeared in these forums in July, 2006, when he was taking PEP for a protected encounter.

His third post on this website was the now infamous post with thirty two photos. (His response (two days later) to my asking him to remove the bulk of them was to remove a mere three.)

His fourth post in these forums was in the Long Term Survivor forum - a post I removed. I then sent him a PRIVATE MESSAGE to say that as a hiv negative person, he should not be posting in that forum. Ann

Let's not forget Jesse's post in the Women's Forum, either, which has since been removed. In the space of a few days we had 32 pictures in the Utter Narcisism thread, an LTS post and a Women's Forum post.

I think most of us in the Forums were initially miffed at the "over-the-top" posting, as we were first getting to know Jesse. This followed by an empty, self-promoting article in POZ has turned into a three-ring circus here, unfortunately.

I still think the article had no substance to it at all, and I stand by that. Perhaps it would benefit POZ mag to watch these Forums more closely and pick someone to report on who could "give something meaningful" back to to the HIV community, whether this "giving" is a reflection of the individual, the reporter's writing, or whatever. Give us something.

"Forget about Jessie and the current issue what's done is done, now how can POZ be better for each of us."

I totally agree with woods, so what are we going to do to improve this?. I was serious when asked who would like to be on cover, in a previous thread i read some people would like to do it. Then lets do it. We are all a face of Aids and the best way to show real face of it... is sharing all the things we have faced and the way we have survived it.

The best fight... is the fight to keep alive, and others should hear more about it.

"Perhaps it would benefit POZ mag to watch these Forums more closely and pick someone to report on who could "give something meaningful" back to to the HIV community, whether this "giving" is a reflection of the individual, the reporter's writing, or whatever..

Guys, what about being proactive and contacting the mag to offer them our version of what living with Aids mean?

I think what disturbs me most about this entire situation (and how it has played out here at the forums) is how incredibly apathetic I feel about it.I don't mean to be sarcastic. I just can't work up any feeling towards any of it--at all.

We all know that without Jesus as the conduit this article would have passed with little or no notice at all. No one has ever started a post about Regan's adventures down under or that Sean guy's book and lord knows they advertise both of those items every day, all day. In fact, I can recall very few threads that start because of something that someone has read in Poz Magazine. I mean an aids infested fly shits in Tanzania and some pozzie will start a thread with a "hey guys" anybody hear about this? It is odd that we post tons of information on the AidsMeds forum, with little of it being generated through the magazine. Honestly I don't see that changing. I log mucho hours on the forums and for the life of me I can't remember someone named Cordelia before yesterday.